The Cell and Molecular Biology Core provides essential services for the proposed Program Project. The capabilities of cellular and molecular biology have only recently been harnessed in our studies which focus on pathophysiological characteristics of solid tumors. We have thus assembled as part of our program, a team of cellular and molecular biologists to assist in the investigation of the relationships between tumor physiology and the expression of molecular determinants to assist in the investigation of the relationships between tumor physiology and the expression of molecular determinants. The facilities and services of this important Core will provide on-site expertise, equipment, and assay protocols to our Project Leaders who are primarily biomedical engineers with relatively limited experience in molecular, cellular and morphological techniques. The molecular biology component of the Core will provide the expertise, equipment, assay protocols, and essential reagents for the characterization of gene expression and protein distribution. These routine services will include the isolation and purification of DNA, RNA and proteins, in situ hybridization, Southern, Northern and Western assays, generation of DNA constructs, and modification of tumor cell lines by transfection and genotyping characterization. The cellular biology component will provide the expertise and services for cell culture (maintenance of tumor cell lines and genetically transfected cell lines, quality control, and maintenance of supplies). The morphology component will provide the expertise and routine services for histology and immunolabeling (providing equipment, supplies and protocols, fixation, embedding and sectioning of tissues, and staining using established immunohistochemical and immunocytochemical procedures). In addition to provide strategic consultation in the design of experimental procedures, to introduce state- of-the-art techniques, and assist in the completion of experiments and interpretation of data for molecular, cellular and morphology studies. Finally, the Core personnel will assure reagent and antibody quality, manage biological information (e.g DNA, protein sequences from Genbank), acquire and store research materials, and maintain essential logs.